Word.ws English Dictionary

wear one's heart upon one's sleeve

wear one's heart upon one's sleeve is the alternative form of wear one's heart on one's sleeve.

Meaning of wear one's heart on one's sleeve

Verb

wear one's heart on one's sleeve (third-person singular simple present wears one's heart on one's sleeve, present participle wearing one's heart on one's sleeve, simple past wore one's heart on one's sleeve, past participle worn one's heart on one's sleeve)

  1. (idiomatic) To be very transparent, open, or forthright about one's emotions.
    • Iago: For when my outward action doth demonstrate
      The native act and figure of my heart
      In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
      But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
      For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    Synonyms:
    to be an open book

Forms of wear one's heart upon one's sleeve

third-person singular presentwears one's heart upon one's sleeve
present participlewearing one's heart upon one's sleeve
pastwore one's heart upon one's sleeve
past participleworn one's heart upon one's sleeve

Questions about wear one's heart upon one's sleeve

What is wear one's heart upon one's sleeve the alternative form of?
Wear one's heart upon one's sleeve is the alternative form of wear one's heart on one's sleeve.

Words near wear one's heart upon one's sleeve in the dictionary

  1. wear many hats
  2. wear off
  3. wear on
  4. wear on one's sleeve
  5. wear one's heart on one's sleeve
  6. wear one's heart upon one's sleeve
  7. wear out
  8. wear out one's welcome
  9. wear rose-colored glasses
  10. wear sackcloth and ashes
  11. wear the breeches

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wear one's heart upon one's sleeve (page history and authors); wear one's heart on one's sleeve (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “wear one's heart upon one's sleeve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wear_one%27s_heart_upon_one%27s_sleeve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.